At the beginning of his participation in the International Conference and Exhibition for Minining, PDAC, which is held in Toronto, Canada, Eng. Tarek El Mula , Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, opened the Egyptian pavilion in the presence of
– Ahmed Abu Zaid, the Egyptian Ambassador in Canada;
– Eng. Alaa Khashab, the Deputy Minister of Mineral Resources;
– the Geologist Osama Farouk, EMRA Chmn;
– Dr. Tamer Abu Bakr, President of the Chamber of Petroleum and Mining in the Federation of Industries and members of the Egyptian delegation participating in the conference.
Furtheremore, El Mulla engaged in the activities of the International Ministerial Summit for Mining, which represents a standard event held every year within the activities of the International Mining Conference in Canada.
The Participants in the summit were ministers and officials of more than 10 major countries in the field of mining; most notably, USA, represented by the Francis Franon, the Assistant US Secretary of State for Energy Affairs.
In addition, each of Chile, South Africa, Finland and Ecuador participated as well.
The participants discussed the main theme of this year’s summit, which is the contribution of mining to the sustainable development of countries in a way that preserves the environment and society switching to green mining.
Also, they discussed and reviewed the best international experiences and practices for developing the mining industry; in addition to the international cooperation in the governance of the mining sector.
For his part, before the summit, Eng. Tarek Al Mulla reviewed the latest Egyptian model for the growth of the mining sector and carried out a range of reforms to boost the investment climate in this critical field, suggesting that Egypt is trying to attract investors and major international companies to invest in the Egyptian mining industry by developing an attractive climate and keeping pace with global practices in this industry.
This essentially supports the realization of its dream of transforming the mining sector into a strong contributor to national production, particularly as Egypt owns the world’s oldest mining industry and abounds in many opportunities and untapped mineral resources, as well as high-level infrastructure in which the Egyptian state has developed highways, utilities, ports and services in recent years as well as available energy source, paving the way for the success of mining investments in Egypt.
Noting that, Al-Mulla stated before the summit that Egypt has taken important steps on the ground to improve the mining sector and attract investment, in particular by amending the law governing mining operations, by amending the investment and financial systems in investment contracts in order to keep pace with global best practices and investment regulations and encouraging procedures for investors to inspire them and to launch mining activities and operations quickly, pointing out that in mid-month, Egypt is offering a major global bid for gold and associated minerals with a total of 320 sectors over an region of approximately 56 thousand square kilometers in the region between 23-28 degrees Eastern Desert and the Red Sea.
The new bidding process is the first to be introduced following the reform of the law and the adoption of new regulations and procedures that have been approved.
Al-Mulla pointed out that these steps have been taken in accordance with a scientific approach that has been applied in collaboration with a specialist foreign consultant to research the conditions of the mining sector in Egypt and to identify the challenges and obstacles to the flow of investment, then come up with realistic solutions to solve them and start implementing them on the ground.
He also stressed the importance of increasing the contribution of mining to the domestic product of the mining countries, which ranges from 0.5% to 20%, suggesting that the rise in foreign investment in Egypt would improve its potential to increase the contribution of mining to the national product and then generate substantial added value, returns and job opportunities and achieve real development.
In addition, he emphasized the importance of concerted efforts by governments, companies and scientific institutions in the field of continuous development of technology used in research and mining in a way that reduces costs and thus contributes to the availability of resources that aid in the transition to green mining.
